Hello, readers!
Mystery songs are always fun entries, 'cause you get to play along at home! Here's a tune that has been in my head on a regular basis for years; I have no idea what it is. My best guess (though this could be way off!) is that it infiltrated my brain waves at some point when I was in college or just after, so perhaps between 14 and 18 years ago. Because of that timing, or perhaps due to some other idiosyncratic memory association with the tune, I've long thought it may be a traditional instrumental that was repurposed by either Camper Van Beethoven or They Might Be Giants. I happen to know a founding member of Camper Van,* and whistled it for him recently. He assured me it wasn't one of their tunes. (Please do check out Chris Molla's excellent blog, by the way! It's full of fascinating discussions of music, composition, performance art, and politics and culture.)
So, if any of you out there wanna wager a guess about the origin of this song, please do! I'm so curious about it, as it is an integral part of my mental soundscape, and I whistle it, unconsciously or quite consciously, multiple times a week.
*This statement reminds me of the scene I am very fond of in Annie Hall in which the guy behind Alvie (Woody Allen) in line at the movies name-drops Marshall McLuhan, and then Alvie pulls McLuhan out of the wings to support his assertion that the guy is a pretentious nitwit. Does name-dropping Chris Molla now make me a pretentious nitwit, I wonder?
**NEWSFLASH** The mystery has been solved! Four years after posting this entry, I finally figured out how this song came into my consciousness. Check out my update right here!
Magic, Redux
Last in my head on May 9, 2010. It was just a few days before my mom died last year, and I felt the song to be quite poignant at that moment. Otherwise, it's just a plain old great song.
Artist: Olivia Newton-John
Year: 1980
Rating: Hot!
Artist: Olivia Newton-John
Year: 1980
Rating: Hot!
Hankerin' Somethin' fierce!
Whoa, dude. I've long known that the Saturday morning ABC animated short Hanker for a Hunk of Cheese is one of the most popularly-searched songs on my blog. A quick glance at my blogger stats tells me just how popular it is!
Yep, seven out of the top ten key word searches refer to this post. Looks like I'm #3 on Google if you're searching the term hanker for a hunk of cheese and #6 for simply the word hanker. Weird. Wish I were higher up in the results for "songs in my head" or "earworms."
Marketing, schmarketing.
Yep, seven out of the top ten key word searches refer to this post. Looks like I'm #3 on Google if you're searching the term hanker for a hunk of cheese and #6 for simply the word hanker. Weird. Wish I were higher up in the results for "songs in my head" or "earworms."
Marketing, schmarketing.
Clocks
I don't usually mention songs that come into my head only because I've freshly heard them; that immediate mental link seems too obvious to me. But the version I heard of Coldplay's big hit "Clocks" the other day was a unique one: I heard it in a Chinese restaurant; it was a Musak version played on wood flute. There are several instrumental covers of the song on YouTube, but I can't find the precise one.
Artist: Coldplay (Musak version: unknown)
Year: 2002
Rating: warm
Witch's Wand
Been nine months since my last Sloan entry. Still, somewhat surprisingly, the top band in my head. I have one of my favorite Canadians to thank for that.
Artist: Sloan
Year: 2008
Rating: Luke Hot
Crazy
I admit that this is a "good" song, and it's catchy as hell, but when it was at its commercial peak, it was ubiquitous, and it drove me fucking craaaaazy. Now, it remains a most pernicious earworm.
Artist: Gnarls Barkley
Year: 2006
Rating: Cold
Three Stooges Theme
...'specially that very last part, "do do dee doo dee doo!"
Based on the traditional folk song Listen to the Mockingbird from 1855.
Era: 1930s Stooges movies
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